Pirates Chase D’Arnaud Uses His Head

Against the Baltimore Orioles

on Monday, Chase d’Arnaud played second base while Neil Walker hit the road to Port Charlotte.  Chase showed the stage wasn’t too big for him.   He completed a play that he said he had never had to make in a game too.

On a ball hit softly to him at second, the runner on first was running toward second when he stopped dead.  d’Arnaud attempted to move toward the player causing the runners’ momentum to change back toward first.  d’Arnaud decided to then quickly threw to first base. The runner was trapped between first and second.   Smart play.  Lyle Overbay fired to second base and the Pirates Josh Rodriguez recorded the out in the rundown.

This audio link is from Colin Dunlap at the PG:
Chase audio on the play

Colin Dunlap is providing some great detail on PG+ during Spring Training.  He is headed back to Pittsburgh on Friday to check on his twins, but the PG will continue coverage, so you may want to consider a subscription if you need your fix and can swing it.  Dunlap wrote this about the play….

Checked with some people in the clubhouse about that play yesterday Chase d’Arnaud made. Again, I don’t want to be one of those know-everything writers, so that is why I ask the experts, the guys who play and instruct baseball for a living. This morning, actually, Kent Tekulve came up to me unsolicited and explained the play, how Chase made the right one because the ball was hit softly and the runner going from first to second stopped dead in his tracks, thus the runner needed to gather his steam again to keep going. That said, the throw to first needed to happen immediately and Lyle Overbay still had enough time to get the ball to second for the other out.

Follow RumBunter on Twitter